Iran Strikes Iraq

September 16, 1985

TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran said its warplanes bombed economic and military installations in southern Iraq Sunday and threatened more shelling in retaliation for Iraqi assaults. The national news agency IRNA quoted a war communique as saying Iranian bombers hit Hawr Az Zubayr, near the southern port city of Basra, in the second air raid on Iraq in successive days. ''The Iraqi forces sustained heavy losses,'' the communique said, adding all the Iranian aircraft returned safely to base. The spokesman said the raid Sunday was in retaliation for Iraqi attacks in the Persian Gulf where Iraq has hit Iran's main oil export terminal at Kharg Island nine times in the past month.